Control is a film about Ian Curtis but not "the Ian Curtis movie" according to director Anton Corbijn. It stars Sam Riley as Ian, Samantha Morton as his wife Debbie and Alexandra Maria Lara as Annik Honoré, Ian's Belgian girlfriend.

Control had its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007. It has also been screened in July 2007 in Wellington, NZ as part of the New Zealand Film Festival. It appeared at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August 2007. It had its New York City premiere at the end of September and the London and Manchester premieres were just days before it went on general release in the UK on 5 October 2007.

On the UK "print" (at least) there is a short dedication to Tony Wilson right at the start of the film (which was available for regular and digital projection.

The soundtrack features original Joy Division songs played by the actors as "Joy Division" alongside three new instrumental pieces by New Order, classic tracks from David Bowie, Roxy Music, Buzzcocks, Kraftwerk and Velvet Underground and a new cover version of Shadowplay by The Killers.

Details were first announced about the long-awaited movie about Ian Curtis in a press conference back in 2005. Legendary photographer and film-maker Anton Corbijn was announced as director with Deborah Curtis and Tony Wilson co-producing alongside main producers Todd Eckert and Orian Williams. The script is by Matt Greenhalgh based on Deborah Curtis's book 'Touching From A Distance'.

The project had the working title 'Control' (which was Anton Corbijn's idea) and this became the actual title of the film. The working title on the official movie page on 'imdb.com was originally 'These Days'.